As we learned a year ago when Paramount picked up rights to the book, Brad Pittand Natalie Portmanhave been cast as the couple, whose romance is depicted over four years, beginning with their meeting at a Halloween party, and ending at some point before this auction (which just so happens to be held on Valentine's Day). The structure of the movie could very well have an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mindfeel. There is a similar attempt to eliminate memories. It's just that in this story those memories are represented by physical rather than mental souvenirs. Will Mottola try to accomplish something that could end up choppier and more gimmicky than Michel Gondry's masterpiece, or will he go with a more conventional plot that ignores Shapton's literary conceit and merely employs the auction setting as bookends to a single, complete flashback? I presume the filmmaker, who is not (yet?) attached to direct Important Artifacts, is asking himself these very questions right now.